Buy, Read and Then Return Your German eBook?

When we look at the Amazon dashboard we are often confused as why, or how, there can be the odd one ebook return. After all you can see everything you need on the screen, make your mind up and even sample the content before you buy, so why is there a refund. The official Amazon policy on returned eBooks is: 'Books you purchase from the Kindle Store are eligible for return and refund if we receive your request within 7 days of the date of purchase. Once a refund is issued, you will no longer have access to the book. To request a refund and return, visit the Manage Your Kindle page. Click the Actions tab for the title you'd like to return, and select "Return for refund"'

Some would suggest it reflects Amazon’s customer-friendly return policy and others that it’s easier for them to do than other services where the horse has literally bolted out the stable door and isn’t coming back. Some go as far as to suggest that it's like going into a restaurant, buying your meal, eating it and then getting your money back.

Barnes and Noble state that 'Once purchased, eBooks cannot be refunded.' and this also is the policy of Sony who state 'Please confirm all purchases before you complete them as all sales are final. There are no refunds for digital content.' Kobo Books doesn't provide information on their refund policy and consider all sales are final and once the services commences, customers cannot cancel the contract or payment. The iTunes Store Terms of Sale, also state that all purchases made on the iTunes Store are final. This policy matches Apple’s refund policies and provides protection for copyrighted materials.

However, we now read in eBook Fieber.de bout a change to German consumer law that potentially gives everyone a no quibble return window of up to 14 days on digital products. These new regulations come into effect in June this year and will require online retailers to offer refunds for ebooks and other digital downloads under an extended “right of withdrawal”.

So you buy the ebook, quickly read it, then return it within 14 days and you get your money back. The question is how will retailers stop abuse especially with respect to services which don’t synchronise activity post download?

Retailers will have the option of trying to get consumers to waive their right to a refund and no doubt the small print may be about to get even longer and smaller.

We had to look twice to ensure it wasn’t April 1st, or a spoof by the German equivalent to The Onion, but it appeared not, so someone in the German legislature must be just having a laugh.

Apple iBooks Hangover

Today we all wake up with an Apple hangover from yesterday’s iBooks Education announcement. We all will now face a bombardment of commentary on whether it is good, bad or ugly. Opinion will be divided. Technical detail on file constructs will loose all but the die hard techie. The commercial rights and wrongs of the restrictions Apple have built in to contracts, their pricing vision and much more will be heatedly debated. Finally, we will face the reality that we are now entering a significant escalation in the Gorilla wars between the big four technology media reading platforms that stretches far past learning and is fundamentally coming down to which player is smartest in capturing our attention and creating the groundswell to lock out the others. The war win not be won by the smartest technology, the most open technology but by the smartest marketing and PR programme.

Last night we participated in a debate on Litopia After Dark. It was good and at a high level. It was also strange in that we all appeared to be struggling to form an opinion either for or against and found ourselves asking for more clarification. This is not a case of glass half full, versus half empty, it is about getting common understanding on a wide range of social, commercial and technological issues as they relate to the offer presented and forming an opinion based on what we know and not on what we don’t know. We recommend you to listen to the Litopia Broadcast.

Today we can look at the high level issues and then drills down to further clarify points.

Social
It is a given that learning can benefit enormously by universal access to technology to assist students of all ages to engage and develop. This is not just a US or even developed world issue and is truly global. However, at a time when spending everywhere is tight, we must ensure that choice prevails, in such a manner that it drives down cost and is inclusive and not divisive. Our thoughts are not about Apple versus Amazon but about Apple versus initiatives such as OLPC.

It is important that choice is available such that we avoid adding more fuel to the educational divide of those how can afford and those who have to learn without. Yes textbooks are expensive today, but replacing them with expensive technology that has an equally short shelf life, may not be the answer.

Finally, we must also consider who is the creator, who is the packager, who buys, who adapts and who users the content and context that supports learning. The value chain in one learning community or geography, doesn’t always prevail in another.

Authoring
We have long recognised that we now live in a world where we no longer listen, read and watch, but were we increasingly write, produce and repurpose, or ‘mix’ our own media. The iBooksAuthor toolkit looks to fit this bill perfectly and acts as one would expect. It enables multi media to be packaged to explodes and enriches today’s flat content.

It is reportedly aimed at publishers but is it really aimed at them, or to undermine them?

Irrespective of the technical issues of the tool, we see a potential groundswell of self publishing authors taking to the tool to create their works and enrich them. Is this restricted to education – no. Is it restricted to educationalists even within the learning environment – no. Some would suggest that it has the power to help further democratise writing.

Why would large publishers then be standing next to Apple and supporting the launch? Some would suggest that these same publishers are backing not one but many horses and spreading their bets widely. Will they shift from their other investments in the likes of Coursesmart or fledglings such as Inkling?

The challenge that publishing and learning now has is identifying who the author in the ibookauthor world is. Is it the traditional author, the publisher, the education board, the institutional library, the teacher, the parents ot groups, or the student? Some will say all of the above.

Publishers today add more value than just producing a textbook and paying the author. They ensure quality, conformance, provide supplemental learning aides and content for the different stakeholders. The more complex the work, the more collaborative the workflow and the wider the participation of creating and producing it. Does ibookauthor support collaborative works, or is it simply focused on the single creator?

Will textbooks have to be created as is today and then enriched after the event, or enriched at concept and flowed into varies renditions?

If we move to a ‘cut and paste’ world of self authoring, not just of text but media, who will act as the gatekeeper, who will ensure rights are not infringed, who will ensure ‘fair use’ doesn’t become open piracy? It is one thing to democratise creativity it is another to try and control abuse. Yesterday we talked about the lack of a rights registry tomorrow we may now have to accept plagiarism as a given.

Commercial
The commercials disclosed at the event and on Apple would appear to be divisive. They have plucked a price point of $14.99 out of the sky and whether we all agree or disagree, that like mud will stick. Does this include or exclude any tax and Apple’s 30% commission? How is the pie divided up and what is the expected cut for all parties? Some will suggest that it is aimed at increasing volume sales, but others will suggest that the market is finite and in some subjects areas, very finite. Some suggest that it will lead to more smaller works. So instead of one textbook, you could now have four richer ones. Will buying more twxtbooks still add up to the same cost to the student as the one textbook today and so defeat the argument of affordability.

There are many potential issues for ‘authors’ and publishers to consider in the terms published. Obviously these may not be applied to those Apple want on board, but we expect that there will be much written on this subject and it impact on whether the platform is open or closed commercially.

Technology
Some would talk about technology first, but It is interesting and fitting that we find ourselves bringing it up last.

Already the debates are raging across the internet as to the level of openness Apple has adopted with their new tool. Yes it is compliant with ePUB3, but with extensions and those would appear to be more in the CSS style sheet end and could prove a challenge to unlock for many. It make it a close format, merely hiding behind an open standard.

It would also appear that ibookauthor is free, open, but only available in Appleworld and on Apple devices. Good for Apple sales and domination, not so good for many others outside this community with sunk investment.

What we don’t understand today is how these new textbooks will work with the LMS environment and whether they will sit outside, inside or create new ones of their own called iBookstore?

For just one take on some technical aspects read this early paper by Baldur Bjarnason. There will be many more over the next few days.

Some have questioned the size of the files and the devices ability to accommodate them but these issues can be overcome. We await the next Apple launch.

There are many who recognise that all technology doors can be open and issues overcome. To many self publishers and small publishers, app developers etc these lock-ins may not matter as much as getting their creation published and in the one store.

We were asked last night what we thought the impact would be 5 years out.

We think:

• it will change self publishing of rich material, be it reference, learning, information etc.
• the take up in education will be slower that Apple would like as the beast is cumbersome and change is not overnight.
• Google, Amazon, Adobe, Facebook all have to respond and these will heavily impact the coming platform wars and not just in learning
• Governments and those holding the purse strings will decide some battles and with the budgets for content and technology starting to blurr in the US, this may be the start of a huge platform war

Today the dust is far from settled and some would suggest that anyone who is today either 100% for or against the initiative is not going to change their opinion whatever comes to light. The presentation and hype certainly drives a stake in the ground and made messages which are hard to disagree with, but it is not those but the Apple execution that we must focus on and decide if it works as delivered, needs to be adapted or doesn’t fly.

Sony and Apple Sparring?

Sony Music UK have apparently denied a report from Australia's The Age this week suggested that Sony's new Music Unlimited service marks the beginning of a move away from Apple iTunes. Michael Ephraim, head of Sony Computer Entertainment in Australia, stated that it could well be time for Sony to review its partnership with Apple and iTunes flippantly commenting , "Does Sony Music need to provide content to iTunes?'

Some would suggest that publishers are being held to ransom by Apple and it ever changing rules as it strives to earn a value share of everything sold on its platforms. Sony already have one huge spat with Apple over Apple’ds rejection of Sony’s ebook app. Another service Sony plan to launch later this year will enable mobile phone users to pay and play first generation PlayStation games on their handsets. Again this looks like a head to head crash between Apple and Sony.

It is an uneasy situation with content aggregators building cross device platforms whilst content publishers grapple to keep control of their content and pricing and device manufacturers, such as Apple, still remain firmly aligned to selling tin and software but want more.

Today DRM Tomorrow?

Amazon’s TV kindle advert is both a powerful and compelling one which ticks most of the consumer buttons. It says to the consumer that they may buy any ebook and play it on any platform, Bookmark on one platform and pick up where you left it on another. It is a simple and clean message that resonates with many consumers who fear being locked into a limited life device.

Google , Kobo and the rest have not made the UK TV screens yet and Apple adverts are more about promoting the Apple brand than any reading message. UK retail is apparently bereft of a ebook message and are totally reliant on others to sell the digital dream.

The core of Google’s eBookstore is a claim that its e-book platform was not tied to any device and that its books can be read on many smart phones, e-ink readers, tablets and PCs. Now, Amazon has also announced that they too will have a Web-based application "in the coming months." We are clearly moving towards a cloud based approach that is able to be read ebooks anywhere and on any device.

So what is the difference between these two giants and where do others sit?

The file formats may be different but inherently they are very similar and are based on epub. Some would say that Google, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble have all opted for epub whilst Amazon has opted for its own proprietary standard. We would suggest that that this doesn’t really matter as the files submitted by the publisher can be epub in all cases and Amazon merely modifies these behind closed doors. There is not one interpretation of epub but a number which are all valid but may effect the rendition on some devices.

The clear differentiator is still that thorny DRM. We have three distinct DRM camps; Adobe ACS4 which supports Google, Sony, Kobo, B&N and many if not all eInk devices capable of DRM, Amazon who has its own DRM and Apple who again do their own thing. Forget the rest as they are mere also ran’s.

So as we move closer to the cloud approach and towards on demand streaming will DRM still matter or will all files be readable via a browser on any device and the security be effectively dealt with by the centre? This brings us back to the question of ownership of digital titles and whether ownership means perpetual access or physical local storage. The questions of; library versus retail, ownership versus on-demand and outright purchase versus rental remain, but is DRM now at its peak of influence and about to decline as things go cloudy?